wgmiller
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2008
- Messages
- 2,899
I had a banner day yesterday on the Little Chiques Creek in Lancaster County. I always wanted to explore this stream below Mount Joy and yesterday was the day I got to spend two hours or so doing just that. The weather was warm (upper 80's) and I wanted to give the trout a break, so I fished this waterway from noon-2 PM.
Arriving, I parked at the stone bridge on Pinkerton Road just south of Groff's Farm restaurant and golf course. There is ample parking here and the lot supports several cars very easily. I worked upstream and fished to the golf course. It's quite easy to tell when you're behind the golf course due to the golf balls in the creek. I even saw a club broken in half laying on the bottom! :-D
I fished with a 9' 8wt which in hindsight was like bringing a gun to a knife fight. I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to get into, so I erred on the side of "overgunning". In reality, this stream could very easily be fished with a 5wt or smaller. The fish I caught would have been even more fun on lighter tackle.
My fly of choice was a #6 olive wooly bugger with white rubber legs. The fish just couldn't seem to stay away from it and it really made life simple because they were destroying it!
In the two hours I fished, I probably landed over a dozen fish and six different species. It was an unexpected result to what I thought would have been a dismal fishing experience.
A little bit about the Little Chiques... It is a warmwater fishery and suffers greatly from sedimentation above Mount Joy. The farmland runoff is significant and it is really "dead water" above Mount Joy. Wading this stretch wasn't bad and much of the wading I did was knee depth water. The deeper holes were probably chest level, but overall wading was easy and I only encountered a few areas of silt along the banks. Bear in mind that this is not "blue ribbon" warmwater fishing. It is fishing close to home that satisfies the need for some pullage!
I didn't see but one golden ghost who saw me and promptly proceeded to flee. If you're stealthy there is a very real shot of being able to sight fish to some carp. The one I saw went 24" or so.
Below are some of the fish I caught. If I mislabeled any of them, feel free to correct me. Sometimes identifying warmwater fish gets the best of me!
Bluegill
Big bluegill
Rock bass
Show some love for the chub...
LMB
Juvenile SMB?
I hooked into something towards the end of my fishing that probably went 20"+. I had him on for a little bit until he threw my hook. In his fight, I couldn't readily make out what it was, but it was nice sized whatever it was. Part of me wants to say that it was a chunky rainbow, but I know that doesn't seem plausible. This stream is stocked above Mount Joy for trout season and the DFCA cooperative nursery is just upstream. I didn't check the stream temperature, but it was still cool. Not to mention, where I hooked him a feeder spring entered the stream. Maybe, just maybe next time!
None of the fish caught were monsters as I'm not sure that the stream supports that kind of size (lack of habitat, food supply, etc.).
Arriving, I parked at the stone bridge on Pinkerton Road just south of Groff's Farm restaurant and golf course. There is ample parking here and the lot supports several cars very easily. I worked upstream and fished to the golf course. It's quite easy to tell when you're behind the golf course due to the golf balls in the creek. I even saw a club broken in half laying on the bottom! :-D
I fished with a 9' 8wt which in hindsight was like bringing a gun to a knife fight. I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to get into, so I erred on the side of "overgunning". In reality, this stream could very easily be fished with a 5wt or smaller. The fish I caught would have been even more fun on lighter tackle.
My fly of choice was a #6 olive wooly bugger with white rubber legs. The fish just couldn't seem to stay away from it and it really made life simple because they were destroying it!
In the two hours I fished, I probably landed over a dozen fish and six different species. It was an unexpected result to what I thought would have been a dismal fishing experience.
A little bit about the Little Chiques... It is a warmwater fishery and suffers greatly from sedimentation above Mount Joy. The farmland runoff is significant and it is really "dead water" above Mount Joy. Wading this stretch wasn't bad and much of the wading I did was knee depth water. The deeper holes were probably chest level, but overall wading was easy and I only encountered a few areas of silt along the banks. Bear in mind that this is not "blue ribbon" warmwater fishing. It is fishing close to home that satisfies the need for some pullage!
I didn't see but one golden ghost who saw me and promptly proceeded to flee. If you're stealthy there is a very real shot of being able to sight fish to some carp. The one I saw went 24" or so.
Below are some of the fish I caught. If I mislabeled any of them, feel free to correct me. Sometimes identifying warmwater fish gets the best of me!
Bluegill
Big bluegill
Rock bass
Show some love for the chub...
LMB
Juvenile SMB?
I hooked into something towards the end of my fishing that probably went 20"+. I had him on for a little bit until he threw my hook. In his fight, I couldn't readily make out what it was, but it was nice sized whatever it was. Part of me wants to say that it was a chunky rainbow, but I know that doesn't seem plausible. This stream is stocked above Mount Joy for trout season and the DFCA cooperative nursery is just upstream. I didn't check the stream temperature, but it was still cool. Not to mention, where I hooked him a feeder spring entered the stream. Maybe, just maybe next time!
None of the fish caught were monsters as I'm not sure that the stream supports that kind of size (lack of habitat, food supply, etc.).
